First the venue – Wharf Chambers is a multi-use venue run by a workers co-operative. It’s inclusive, affordable (no rip off drinks prices here) and puts on a fantastic variety of live music throughout the year.
Tonight’s gig is a sell-out and by 8pm there’s a real buzz developing.
Soft Issues kick off the evening entertainment. This two-piece from Leeds deliver what can only be described as an insane level of screaming noise based on synth driven sounds. They don’t play tunes, they simply drill straight into your head with a hypnotising set that can, occasionally, lull you into a false sense of calmness before the ferocious, agonizing, grinding vocals and piercing, almost unbearable electronic soundscape once again kicks you in the head.
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| Soft Issues |
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| Soft Issues |
By contrast, Toronto’s Cameron Findlay, better known as Kontravoid, delivers a set of electronic beats that aren’t your run-of-the-mill dance tunes. Pushing the boundaries of techno electro-pop as vocals and non-stop movements are almost obliterated by the constant flickering of pure white strobes. It’s hard to know where to look or what to concentrate on. Kontravoid’s set of repetitive, mesmorising beats, dark lyrics and apocalyptic lighting mangles your senses as he takes you down an ominous path to who knows where.
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| Kontravoid |
By the time Boy Harsher walk on stage the place is absolutely rammed. Sell out means sell out. I doubt you could have squeezed another soul onto the floor tonight. There’s a real sense of anticipation building. As one person behind me said, “I don’t care if I can’t see them. I just want to listen and dance.” And dance they did. It took no build up, no ‘getting into it’. From opening song ‘A Realness’ the whole place doesn’t stop moving. Boy Harsher play addictive, dark, minimal synth chords over deep, driving beats. If you’d never heard them before it’d be milliseconds before you were moving, dreaming, completely locked in to their techno-goth sounds. Add in Jae Matthews’ haunting vocals, piercing stares, occasional manic yelps and it’s easy to see why Boy Harsher draw you in and keep you fixated. Surprisingly their set tonight isn’t dominated by songs from recent LP release ‘Careful’ – ‘Fate’, ‘Come Closer’, ‘Tears’ and ‘LA’ are masterpieces of 80’s synth-pop influenced dance tunes but without the chintz. 2016’s ‘Your Body Is Nothing’ gives us ‘A Realness’, ‘Your Body Is Nothing’ and the constantly changing, simple beat into driving basslines, and unnerving vocals of highlight ‘Suitor’. On ‘Westerners’ (from EP Country Girl) and ‘Modulations’ (from ‘Lesser Man’) Gus Muller ups the tempo of synth driven melodies. Set closer, and arguably Boy Harsher’s calling card, ‘Pain’ is a magical mix of thick, pulsating bass rhythm, pounding beats and dark, husky vocals repeating “Pain breaks rhythm, breaks rhythm”. It’s easy to understand why Pain has, to date, been played over 1.3 million times on Spotify alone.
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| Boy Harsher |
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| Boy Harsher |
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| Boy Harsher |
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| Boy Harsher |
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| Boy Harsher |
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| Boy Harsher |
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| Boy Harsher |
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| Boy Harsher |
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